Orange County to Be Setting for New Saga of Round Table West

The seed was planted in the mid-’70s when Margaret Burk asked Adela Rogers St. Johns, the veteran journalist and best-selling author, if there was something she’d still like to accomplish.

St. Johns, then in her 80s and interested in encouraging more people to read, responded by saying, “I would like to have a literary group.”

The result of that conversation became Adela Rogers St. Johns’ Round Table West, co-founded in 1977 by Burk and Marylin Hudson, partners in a Los Angeles public relations firm.

Over the years, Round Table West’s monthly luncheons at the historic Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles have attracted up to 600 guests per meeting, making it possibly the largest such program in the nation. In the club’s 12-year history, more than 500 authors have stopped by to discuss their new books. They are a diverse group, ranging from Erica Jong and Maya Angelou to Gen. Chuck Yeager and Norman Cousins.

The bad news for Orange County residents has been the long drive to Los Angeles to attend the monthly meetings.

The good news is Round Table West is coming to Orange County next week, taking up residence in the Balboa Bay Club.

On the bill for the premiere meeting at noon Thursday are: the original King Kong’s main squeeze, Fay Wray, who will discuss her autobiography, “On the Other Hand”; satirist Stan Freberg, whose autobiography is titled “It Only Hurts When I Laugh,” and writer Henry Denker, whose new novel is “The Retreat.”

The cost of the luncheon program is $25, and advance reservations are a must. For reservations, call (213) 386-3276.

Round Table West, named after the legendary gathering of wits at the Algonquin Hotel in New York in the ‘20s, will continue its monthly meetings in Los Angeles. Since the Ambassador Hotel closed its doors in January, meetings have been held in the Midtown Hilton and Gardens in Los Angeles.

Round Table West South, as some have dubbed the club’s Orange County branch, will operate just as the original does. That includes Marylin Hudson’s brief opening humor segment, “You Were Born Under a Funny Sign,” a Round Table tradition that began 5 years ago when Hudson was asked to fill in for astrologer Carroll Righter. Books will also be available for autographing.

Donna and John Crean of Newport Beach, who started attending Round Table West in 1980, are responsible for bringing the club to Orange County.

After one particularly slow-moving freeway drive home from a Round Table West meeting, Donna Crean recalled: “I said to my husband: ‘I wish they had one down here.’ And he said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ”

The Creans, who are members of the Balboa Bay Club, got the ball rolling in January.

“We’ve been asked to go to a lot of different places--San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Avalon, La Jolla--but they (the Creans) came up with something concrete,” Burk said. “They encouraged us and gave us the support we needed. We’re just thrilled about the reception we’ve had from everyone we’ve talked to in Orange County.”

To help launch Round Table West in Orange County, Burk said, actor Robert Young and fashion arbiter Mr. Blackwell--both longtime members--will attend the first meeting Thursday.

St. Johns, who died in 1988, was a fixture at the meetings during the club’s early years. At age 93, in one of her last interviews, the veteran writer said one of the things she was most proud of was her role in helping found Round Table West.

“Adela thought it was her finest accomplishment--that although she had written many books and many short stories that were made into movies and was (one of) the first woman reporters, she felt she had left a legacy,” Burk said.

Novel Sold: Michelle Latiolais of Costa Mesa, who teaches undergraduate poetry and fiction writing at UC Irvine, has sold her first novel to Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Latiolais, 32, says the book is set in the wine country of Northern California. It deals with a girl whose parents have been divorced.

“It’s about the confinement of childhood,” said Latiolais. “It’s not a happy book. It’s serious, contemplative. There are no belly laughs. It’s not going to be sold to TV.”

Jonathan Galassi, a former poetry editor for The Paris Review, will edit the novel for which Latiolais received a $20,000 advance. “That’s what was really exciting for me, to get to work with him,” she said. “The money was secondary.”

Latiolais’ literary agent, Joy Harris of the Lantz Office in New York, sold the book in less than a week.

“I was prepared to wait about 6 weeks,” Latiolais said. “These things take a long time, I understand. It’s all new to me.”

Latiolais expects her book to be out in spring, 1990. She said she is completing a collection of poems and will start her second novel, which will be about sisters, at the beginning of summer.

Oakley Hall, director of UCI’s Programs in Writing, says the manuscript for Latiolais’ novel came from the 1985-’86 “magic workshop,” where a number of now-published works were started, including Michael Chabon’s “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” and James Brown’s “Final Performance.” Also launched during the workshop were Jay Gummerman’s soon-to-be-released collection of short stories, “We Find Ourselves in Moontown,” and Louis B. Jones’ “Ordinary Money,” due out next January.

Writers Club: Gregory Lee, director of Carnival Enterprises, one of the nation’s largest book packagers, will speak at 10 a.m. today at a meeting of the Southern California chapter of the National Writers Club. The meeting will be held at the Irvine Marriott, 18000 Von Karman Ave. Tickets: $10 for non-members.

Banned Books: In the wake of the furor over Salmon Rushdie’s controversial novel, “The Satanic Verses,” 16 Southern California writers will read from banned or challenged books at 8 p.m. Thursday at Upchurch-Brown Booksellers, 384 Forest Ave., Laguna Beach.

Among the Orange County writers who are scheduled to read from works of their choice are Michael Chabon, Elizabeth George, E.M. Nathanson, T. Jefferson Parker, Robert Ray, Jay Gummerman, Ann and Evan Maxwell, and Theodore Taylor.

Co-owner Mary Upchurch said she did not know if anyone planned to read from “The Satanic Verses.”

“The idea is that we all feel there is a need to constantly reiterate and reaffirm that there should be no attempt to limit the right to write or voice divergent ideas,” she said.

Book Signing: Dan Simmons will sign copies of his new horror thriller, “Carrion Comfort,” from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. next Saturday March 25 at Aladdin Books, 122 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton. Aladdin Books offers new and out-of-print books and specializes in science fiction, horror, cinema and performing arts.

Book Club: The Book of the Month Club has purchased the rights to Elizabeth George’s second novel, “Payment in Blood.” The Huntington Beach writer’s novel, due out in September, will be sold by the club as a featured alternate. It also will be a main selection of the Mysterious Press Book Club.